


Is That a Flirtation?

by GatesKeeper



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Future Fic, Human Castiel (Supernatural), M/M, POV Sam Winchester, Supportive Sam Winchester
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-30
Updated: 2020-08-30
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26202262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GatesKeeper/pseuds/GatesKeeper
Summary: “No, Cas, that’s not—” Sam begins, blowing the hair out of his eyes. “‘Did it hurt when you fell out of Heaven?’ is… it’s an expression.”“It’s a come-on,” Dean corrects, signaling to Donny for a refill for his beer.
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester
Comments: 30
Kudos: 485





	Is That a Flirtation?

“No, Cas, that’s not—” Sam begins, blowing the hair out of his eyes. “‘Did it hurt when you fell out of Heaven?’ is… it’s an _expression._ ”

“It’s a come-on,” Dean corrects, signaling to Donny for a refill for his beer. The three of them have all commandeered stools up at the bar, away from the thrumming music and the low-voiced conversations of the couples playing pool. However, they’re still close enough to overhear the drunk guy in the suit trying to hit on the blonde a couple of places down from them.

“He’s just trying to—to compliment her by comparing her to an angel.”

“Why would being an angel be a compliment?” Cas asks with a tilt of his head.

“ _Cause,_ ” Dean explains, barely jerking his chin in time to stop a glob of nacho cheese from falling onto his black T-shirt. “Most people don’t think of angels as looking like Zachariah. Or Uriel. They’re, you know… supposed to be hot.” He mumbles the last words around a bite of chips, giving the newly-human Cas a quick glance up and down before turning his gaze back to his food.

 _Smooth, Dean,_ Sam thinks, rolling his eyes behind Cas’s back.

“So, it’s another misconception. Like that we play the harp.”

“Yes,” the youngest Winchester confirms.

Cas reaches for a nacho, either not noticing or not caring that Dean skitters his hand out of the way so that their fingers don’t touch. “Regardless, it still doesn’t seem like a very good way of introducing yourself to someone. For actual angels, falling from Heaven is—well, it’s excruciating.”

“Trust me, as pick-up-lines go, most _humans_ think that one’s painful too,” Dean mutters.

“Like you haven’t used it before,” Sam scoffs in disbelief.

“With a face like this?” Dean swirls his finger in the direction of his freckles. “Don’t gotta. You—on the other hand—”

Sam shakes his head. “You’re such a _jerk,”_ he mutters into his drink.

“Bitch,” Dean responds with the same amount of conviction.

Unsurprisingly, it only devolves from there—with the two brothers trading embarrassing stories about what they’ve seen the other do or say to try to get laid. Sam monitors Cas out of the corner of his eye—just to make sure they’re not overstepping any boundaries. However, the dark-haired man seems to take a genuine interest in the subject (“Last night on Earth? That’s… a ‘move’?” he asks Dean, squinting, as Dean nearly chokes to death on peanuts). Sam shrugs to himself, figuring that Cas has seen enough of his brother’s—erm, exploits—firsthand to not be particularly offended by them. And it's not like he's been going out much lately.

Eventually, Dean, loaded up on beer, announces he's “Headed to the john.”

“Sam—” Cas begins, a few seconds after Dean leaves.

“The ‘john’ means the bathroom, Cas,” Sam rushes to say—worried that the other man will think Dean has gone off to… pray to John Winchester or something.

“I know _that_ ,” Cas insists, almost indignantly. “I'm wondering…” He crumples and uncrumples a napkin between his long fingers—a nervous gesture. It’s weird that he has those now. “When Dean calls me ‘Angel’, he’s… referring to my species? Or my former species?” he asks with big eyes. “He hasn’t been—implying I’m attractive, right?”

“Uh….” Sam answers, intelligently. And even though he’s always prided himself on being the most emotionally open of the Winchesters, he kinda wishes that a monster would attack right now. Explaining idioms to Cas—that he can do. Explaining _Dean_ is…

“Your brother has made it very clear that he doesn’t find the male form arousing,” Cas says before he can open his mouth again. “Well, perhaps, Dr. Sexy….” he adds as an aside, causing Sam to involuntarily snort because Dean thinks that he’s _subtle_.

“And considering that I _am_ a man as far as he is concerned—even more so now that there is no possibility of me switching vessels—” Cas’s shoulders slump slightly. It might not have been noticeable if he were still wearing a baggy trench coat, but the dark-haired man returned to jeans and hoodies pretty quickly once he gave up his grace. And suddenly, Sam can’t _not_ say anything. Sure, he’s still not certain if it’s his place to meddle—but Cas is his brother, too, and he obviously needs _something_ here.

“You’re right,” he sighs out at last. “Dean might not mean anything, in particular, when he calls you ‘Angel.’”

Cas nods, resignedly.

“The same way he might not mean anything when he calls you ‘Sunshine’—lots of people do that in a friendly way. And, let’s be real, Dean’s a touchier person than he realizes. Which is why he likes to put your ID in your pocket and straighten your collar for you even though you’re perfectly capable of doing it yourself. I get the impression you don’t mind, though—since you pretend you haven’t learned to tie a tie yet when he’s around so that he’ll help out.”

Cas looks up sharply, while Sam calmly sips his drink.

“There’re also probably a perfectly good reason why he’s always trying to set you up, but then gets tense if he thinks you show any interest back. It’s likely the same reason he hated it when you hung out with other angels. Because, deep down, he’s worried that the people he cares about are gonna leave him. ‘Course, that doesn’t fully explain why he got upset that time I tried to teach you pool—but you guys are best friends, and he can get a little—possessive—of that.”

“I… what are you saying, Sam?”

He shifts in his chair to meet Cas’s eyes—and, yeah, he knew they were blue, but he doesn’t think he’s ever looked at them directly when they’re at full intensity before. He’s actually impressed that Dean manages to just… stare back all the time. “I’m saying that we live pretty unordinary lives, so it makes sense that your relationship with Dean is a little unorthodox too. Which makes it easy to write off everything my brother does as Dean just being Dean, or Dean being a friend, or Dean caring so much because you’re like family to us. I’m sure that’s what you tell yourself—what Dean tells _himself_.”

“But you… have a different opinion.”

“I think…” he purses his mouth, trying to find the right words. “Dean loves you, Cas. In a way that’s different and more intense than he loves a lot of people. I think… no, I _know_ that when he pictures the future, he wants a life with you in it.” That’s probably an understatement. He saw what Dean was like when Cas died the last time—and he never wants to see that haunted expression on his brother’s face again.

“As for the rest of it,” Sam shrugs. “It’s not really my place to speculate, you know. And regardless of… whatever he’s got going on deep down, he might only ever be OK with... what you guys have right now. Is that… enough for you?”

Over in the corner, the bathroom door swings open, and Cas’s eyes automatically soften as they look at Dean, wiping his hands on his jeans. 

“It’s more than enough,” the former angel whispers—before immediately launching into a conversation about how in Russia, there’s a statue in honor of all the lab rats that died in the name of scientific discovery.

“Is this really what you two nerds talk about when I’m gone?” Dean scoffs, sliding back into his seat—and if his stool winds up a few inches closer to Cas’s then it was before, it’s not worth mentioning.

/////

_One year later…_

Sam’s already had a really weird day—so when he stumbles into the kitchen to find Cas humming as he waits for the coffee machine to percolate, he’s can’t help but wonder if he’s still asleep. “Cas—” he starts, prompting the former angel to turn around with an almost obscene smile on his face.

“Hello, Sam.”

“Hello,” he repeats, eying the other man—from his sleep-mussed hair to his bumblebee pajama pants—all pretty standard for Cas nowadays. “Did you, uh, have a good time at the bar with Dean last night?”

“I did.”

Sam waits, but the other man doesn’t seem inclined to elaborate. “That’s… that’s good. But, um, you see, I went past your room this morning on my way to jog and I couldn’t help but notice that—er… Do you… Do you…?” _Screw it._ “Cas, do you actually _know_ what a sock on the door means?” he asks, scrubbing the back of his neck while carefully cataloging all his friend's facial expressions.

“He does,” a familiar voice says from behind him.

He whirls around to find Dean in the doorway, also looking amazingly like his normal self. Except that he then walks around the counter and _kisses Cas on the cheek—_ the flush on his face the only indicator that this isn’t how they start every day.

“Morning, Sam,” Dean greets with forced casualness, eyes settling somewhere just off to the left of him so that he probably doesn’t see the smile slowly growing on Sam’s face until it reaches his cheeks—but Cas does.

“It _is_ a good morning, isn’t it?” Sam says before grabbing himself some orange juice.

**Author's Note:**

> Like this work?
> 
> Consider checking out:  
> [Staring You in the Face](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25045660)  
> [Sharing Is Caring](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24657151)  
> Want to talk to someone about SPN?  
> I'm [@_GatesKeeper on Twitter](https://twitter.com/_GatesKeeper)  
> and [Gates_Keeper on Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/gates-keeper)


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